Kerala Food and civil supplies minister Anoop Jacob has ordered the withdrawal of all existing stock of Maggi noodles from the Supplyco outlets following complaints against the product.

The food safety inspectors in Uttar Pradesh had filed a case against the company manufacturing this brand, after high level of lead was found in some packets. Several states across the country started taking action against the sale of the product.

In light of the issue, the Kerala government also decided to withdraw Maggi from all the government outlets. Additionally, the government has ordered the company authorities to take back their stock of Maggi immediately.

Meanwhile, TV Anupama, food safety commissioner of Kerala, said that the state has already started testing random samples of Maggi noodles collected from different centres.

While the test results showing the presence of lead have come, the officials are still waiting for the test results that will quantify the presence monosodium glutamate in the samples. "The presence of lead in the samples collected were well within in the maximum permissible limit of 2.5ppm," TV Anupama said.

As many as six samples were collected, two each from Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Ernakulam districts. The tests were conducted at the government laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram, Cashew Export Promotion Council India's (CEPC) laboratory in Kollam and Sterling Test House (STH) laboratory in Kochi.

Delhi finds Maggi 'unsafe'

The Delhi government on Tuesday said samples of Maggi noodles were found unsafe. Delhi government spokesperson Nagendra Sharma said the samples had been sent to lab for testing.